Meta

Month: October 2012

We’re in the festive part of the Indian year. This year’s celebrations of Ganesha’s journey into our homes and the farewell immersion parades were unique for the large number of foreigners involved in playing the ‘Dhol-Tasha’. While I was merely one spectator in the thousands all around, they marched along with the locals, danced, and picked up the well-practiced crazy beat. When the 3 white women waved wildly at my direction from a few hundred faces away I thought they were just expressing their happiness at being a part of the celebrations.

A little later they were standing just a few feet away from me. The decibel level of the songs & drums was deafening. “Hey, you’re Dumb, Drunk & Racist?” (No one in India knows about DD&R so being recognized from it wasn’t even a remote possibility.) ” Umm no, but I was in it.” “With Joe!!” “”Yes!” “Wow! You write the blog.. It’s really you.” “I guess so.” “I loved DD&R and we love Joe….!” “Australians?” “Yes, Yes, Yes” “Can we see the dvd if you have it, I missed an ep and I believe Joe did a.. “ However much I tried, it was tough listening to the women go on about Joe right in the middle of dancing, drum-beats, cymbals & deafening chants in praise of the elephant god. This is how it looked.

We exchanged numbers. That weekend my home was resounding with Australian English- Uni students on an exchange program. Pune is always abuzz with visiting students.

I was expecting three Aussies for lunch. There were eleven!Luckily we can order ‘biryani’ in, and since the eleven Aussies were polite enough to say they’d love some, lunch wasn’t hard to organize. Besides, being Indian means there’s always food in the house- it’s like we’re always ready for any eventuality.

It was their 2nd week in India. They were fascinated with the colors, food, chaos, people, traffic, Indian clothes & jewelry, festivities and the sea of humanity all around.

Conversation flowed… like strong Indian beer.We ran out of beer quickly due to the unexpectedly large number of guests, but help was at hand in the form of the ‘home-delivery’ from across the road. (I wonder if they do that in Aus.)

The students insisted on watching the DD&R dvd. For me, it was the first time I actually watched the series at one go. It was immensely interesting to ‘see’ real-time Aussie reactions instead of read them on social media and mail. We kept pausing for loud discussions all through. They were appalled, embarrassed, moved, disgusted, surprised, taken aback, disbelieving, amused and defensive. “This is not really us”/ “I see this happen all the time” were thrown around all evening.

Some random learning : Almost all of them had seen at least a few eps of the show (the ones who hadn’t said they never ever watch or will watch ABC ), all of whom had replayed the pre-airing promos for 2 things- Expected- The b*** flash. Unexpected- To laugh at my “We don’t recommend ….too much in the sense of not at all.” I mentally went back a few months to the mail/ comments on various sites where people were “ha”- ing about it, and realized that it was a more common reaction than what I had thought. I was just being myself- I guess I have an odd sense of humor.

Everyone who had watched the series followed this blog. “What you did outside of what we saw is also so interesting! Season 2 should include this- Outside the Camera” felt good to hear.

Almost all of them- all the women & one man- wanted to ask me a hundred questions about Joe & thought he was one or the other- cute/ wanker/ smart/really cute/ purposely controversial /needs a new coat and I should send him one from India/ totally crush-worthy/ what was he like in real life?/ were we friends ?/ did you meet his girlfriend? The rest of the men just wanted to continue drinking beer without a break*/ thought he was a troll / didn’t know him before DD&R (Joe, I know that’s impossible! I know I shouldn’t say impolite things about my guests, but I think the nice Aussie bloke lied to me)/ tries too hard to look either like Jesus or a tramp/ am curious: was he rude in real life too?/am curious: was it awkward spending all that time together even though you were strangers?/ Did you all sleep in the van or share rooms and was Joe a part of it?

One refrain: “You have to be extremely brave or really crazy to do this show! Were you all warned about how dangerous it could get? Almost every episode has something really uncomfortable or dangerous.”

Their questions just didn’t end : “Just curious, why did they choose you four? (Read the refrain. Maybe we were the only four who were crazy enough..) “Which did you like more- Sydney or Melbourne?” ( Hard to say since we kept traveling in & out.) “Which city seemed more friendly ‘in the sense of’ the people there. ha!” ( Ha!) “What caste are you, and do you have friends from other castes?” (Mixed. Personally, I don’t know anyone who makes friends based on that anymore. Not in the cities anyway.) “Why didn’t they show you in your home with your family?” ( Wish I knew. But my very- reluctant-to-be-interviewed daughter is glad for that.) “Did Mahima actually mean it when she said Indian girls have to appear to be good girls?” (She meant it. All don’t though. There are enough give-aways I would think.) “Did you have an arranged marriage? Mahima’s having one too? What about the boys?” ( Semi- arranged. I would think yes. Gurmeet- yes. Amer- No/Semi, maybe) “Did Amer really breakdown at Cronulla.. Why exactly? He’s cute… Is he really? (Yes. It wasn’t an easy report to see. Yes, very.) “How could you be so polite & sit with and calmly speak your mind to the Protectionist Party while they were so noxious?( I’m like that- I speak my mind, but calmly.) “What was the scariest experience? Alice Springs attack?” ( A King’s Cross experience outside the camera/ Melbourne streets at night where we filmed. No) “Why don’t you share experiences about Joe like you do about the other Aussies with you? Has he/they** asked you not to?” ( No particular reason really, I just write what comes to mind. No) Are you still friends with the Aussie crew/ stay in touch? Are Joe and you friends/ do you read what he writes? Do you like it?( Yes, good friends/ All the time. Yes we are. I read everything he writes. I don’t understand a lot of the political stuff, but he’s smart & he’s funny!) [ The boys: “Aw come on no..you sold out Radhika.” Most girls: “Yeah”] “Why haven’t you posted anything on Melbourne/ the Alice Springs attack/ Moree interactions/ Indigenous interactions & learnings?Have they** told you not to/ to stop posting? You should write about all of it- it’s an incomplete picture yet!” (I just assumed there’d be not much interest left in DDR recalls anymore. No. I will now.) “You stayed in Kings cross? What was the Indians’ experience there? Did Joe take you all to some of the night spots? What was Mahima’s/ Gurmeet’s reaction there? Amer must have had a great time.” ( The next post has it all.) I promised I would get back to DD&R blogging soon.

By the time they left, it was the next day. I doubt they’ll ever get to have ‘Mutton Korma & Pau’ for breakfast at 4 am.

I’m sure they’d have loved to help clearing up, but Indian beer is no pushover.

Just as they were leaving I heard a few of them counting the beer bottles I had piled up for the re-cycling bin. It was a round figure- 110.

* They hadn’t yet found an opportunity to drink alcohol. Most Indian homes where they stay would not be okay with them drinking there.
** They- It was just left unexplained. “The ABC ” is what I got when I pushed.
*** None of these pictures are mine. They took a lot of photographs, but I’m not allowed to share them- they told me later that they weren’t supposed to be here and didn’t want their host families to know.